Saturday, 17 June 2017

Johann Vierdanck
(also: Virdanck, Vyrdanck, Feyertagk, Feyerdank, Fierdanck; ca. 1605–1646) was
a German violinist, cornettist, and composer of the Baroque period. Vierdanck
was born near Dresden. In 1615 he joined the court chapel of Dresden, where he
became a student of Heinrich Schütz and of William Brade. His instrumental
works were influenced by the Italian violinist Carlo Farina, also active in the
Dresden court.

After visits to Copenhagen and
Lübeck, Vierdanck occupied the post of organist in Stralsund from 1635 until
his death. He was buried in Stralsund on 1 April 1646.The group Parnassi Musici
has recorded several of his instrumental works, from his 1641 publication, for
the CD label Classic Produktion Osnabrück.

Here are some of his chamber
works performed by the group Parnassi Musici.

Friday, 16 June 2017

“Tea time is a chance to slow down, pull back and appreciate our surroundings.” - Letitia Baldrige

Afternoon tea in Winter is a lovely tradition and having the right cakes is absolutely essential. One of the cakes we often have is the "1-2-3-4" Yoghurt Cake from Greece. It’s lovely and light and moist.

MethodSeparate the eggs, beating the yolks with the sugar until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks (reserve).Add the oil little by little while beating the yolk-sugar mixture. Once incorporated, add the yoghurt, a little at a time, mixing slowly. Add the vanilla essence.Stop beating the mixture and add about a quarter of the flour and a quarter of the beaten egg-white alternately until they are used up, folding gently with a spatula to mix thoroughly.Empty in a well-greased and floured ring cake tin and bake in an oven pre-warmed to 180˚C for 55 to 60 minutes in the centre shelf. Don’t open the oven door for the first 40 minutes or so, but later you may need to cover the cake with a little foil to prevent the top burning. Check if it’s done by inserting a skewer. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven and then upend onto your serving platter. Ice or dust when cake is cold.

Thursday, 15 June 2017

“People can
choose between the sweet lie or the bitter truth. I say the bitter truth, but
many people don’t want to hear it.” - Avigdor Lieberman

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) is a perennial,
herbaceous flowering plant of the aster family, native to temperate Europe and
Asia. It has been introduced to other parts of the world including North
America, and in some areas has become invasive. It is also known as common
tansy, bitter buttons, cow bitter, or golden buttons. Tansy is absent from
Siberia and some of the Mediterranean islands. The ancient Greeks may have been
the first to cultivate it as a medicinal herb. In the sixteenth century it was
considered to be “necessary for a garden” in Britain.

The plant is a
flowering herbaceous species with finely divided compound leaves and yellow,
button-like flowers. It has a stout, somewhat reddish, erect stem, usually
smooth, 50–150 cm tall, and branching near the top. The leaves are alternate,
10–15 cm long and are pinnately lobed, divided almost to the centre into about
seven pairs of segments, or lobes, which are again divided into smaller lobes
having saw-toothed edges, giving the leaf a somewhat fernlike appearance.

The roundish,
flat-topped, button-like, yellow flower heads are produced in terminal clusters
from mid-to-late summer. The scent is similar to that of camphor with hints of
rosemary. The leaves and flowers are toxic if consumed in large quantities;
the volatile oil contains toxic compounds including thujone, which can cause
convulsions and liver and brain damage. If you intend to use tansy as a culinary
herb do not use it to excess and do not use it at all if you are allergic to
it. Some insects, notably the tansy beetle Chrysolina graminis, have resistance to the toxins and subsist
almost exclusively on the plant.

Tansy has a long
history of use. It was first recorded as being cultivated by the ancient Greeks
for medicinal purposes. In the 8th century AD it was grown in the herb gardens
of Charlemagne and by Benedictine monks of the Swiss monastery of Saint Gall.
Tansy was used to treat intestinal worms, rheumatism, digestive problems,
fevers, sores, and to bring out measles. During the Middle Ages and later, high
doses were used to induce abortions. Contrary to this, tansy was also said to
help women conceive and to prevent miscarriages. In the 15th century,
Christians began serving tansy with Lenten meals to commemorate the bitter
herbs eaten by the Israelites. Tansy was thought to have the added Lenten
benefits of controlling flatulence brought on by days of eating fish and pulses
and of preventing the intestinal worms believed to be caused by eating fish
during Lent.

Tansy was used
as a face wash and was reported to lighten and purify the skin. In the 19th
century, Irish folklore suggested that bathing in a solution of tansy and salts
would cure joint pain. Although most of its medicinal uses have been
discredited, tansy is still a component of some medicines and is listed by the
United States Pharmacopeia as a treatment for fevers, feverish colds, and
jaundice.

Tansy has also
been cultivated and used for its insect repellent and in the worm warding type
of embalming. It was packed into coffins, wrapped in funeral winding sheets,
and tansy wreaths were sometimes placed on the dead. During the American
colonial period, meat was frequently rubbed with or packed in tansy leaves to
repel insects and delay spoilage. Tansy was frequently worn at that time in
shoes to prevent malaria and other fevers; it has been shown, however, that
some mosquito species including Culex
pipiens take nectar from tansy flowers.

Tansy can be
used as in companion planting and for biological pest control. It is planted
alongside potatoes to repel the Colorado potato beetle, with one study finding
tansy reduced the beetle population by 60 to 100%. In England tansy is placed
on window sills to repel flies; sprigs are placed in bed linen to drive away
pests, and it has been used as an ant repellent. In the 1940s, distilled tansy
oil mixed with fleabane, pennyroyal and diluted alcohol was a well-known
mosquito repellent. Some research studies support these insect-repellent uses.

Tansy was
formerly used as a flavouring for puddings and omelettes, but this culinary use
is now almost unknown. The herbalist John Gerard (c. 1545–1612) noted that
tansy was well known as “pleasant in taste”, and he recommends tansy sweetmeats
as “an especial thing against the gout,
if every day for a certain space a reasonable quantitie thereof be eaten
fasting.” In Yorkshire, tansy and caraway seeds were traditionally used in
biscuits served at funerals. During the Restoration, a “tansy” was a sweet
omelette flavoured with tansy juice. In the BBC documentary “The Supersizers go
...Restoration”, Allegra McEvedy described the flavour as “fruity, with a sharpness
to it and then there’s a sort of explosion of cool heat a bit like peppermint.”
However, the programme’s presenter Sue Perkins experienced tansy toxicity.
According to liquor historian A. J. Baime, in the 19th century Tennessee
whiskey magnate Jack Daniel enjoyed drinking his own whiskey with sugar and
crushed tansy leaf.

Many tansy
species contain a volatile oil, which can cause contact dermatitis in sensitive
individuals. If taken internally, toxic metabolites are produced as the oil is
broken down in the liver and digestive tract. It is highly toxic to internal
parasites, and for centuries tansy tea has been prescribed by herbalists to
expel worms. Tansy is an effective insecticide and is highly toxic to
arthropods.

In the language of flowers, tansy leaves mean "the truth is bitter", while flowering stems indicate "hate, bitterness and a declaration of war".

Tuesday, 13 June 2017

“Caring about
others, running the risk of feeling, and leaving an impact on people, brings
happiness.” - Harold KushnerWelcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Mytilene (Greek: Μυτιλήνη;
Mytilini in Modern Greek) is a town and a former municipality on the island of
Lesbos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part
of the municipality Lesbos, of which it is a municipal unit. It is the capital
of the island of Lesbos. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is built on the
southeast edge of the island. It is also the seat of a metropolitan bishop of
the Orthodox church. Mytilene has a port with ferries to the nearby islands of
Lemnos and Chios and Ayvalık and at times Dikili in Turkey. The port also
serves the mainland cities of Piraeus, Athens and Thessaloniki.The city
produces ouzo. There are more than 15 commercial producers on the island.The
city exports sardines harvested from the Bay of Kalloni and olive oil and
woodwork.

An earthquake
with a magnitude of 6.2 Richter has badly damaged scores of homes on the Eastern
Greek island of Lesbos, killing one woman and injuring at least 10 people. Lesbos
Mayor Spyros Galinos and the fire service said the woman was found dead in the
Southern village of Vrisa that was worst-hit by the quake, which had its
epicentre under the sea, to the South of the island.

According to
Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management, the epicentre was at a shallow
depth of seven kilometres. At least 25 aftershocks were recorded following the
initial quake at 3:28 pm local time, Monday 12th June. The tremor was also felt
in densely populated Istanbul and the western Turkish province of Izmir, but no
injuries were reported there. Earthquakes are common around the Aegean Sea, and
both Greece and Turkey frequently report tremors and even more serious quakes.
Despite this, people have learnt to live with and survive earthquakes, with
most new buildings constructed, being adequate earthquake-resistant structures.

Monday, 12 June 2017

“Writing is an
extreme privilege but it's also a gift. It's a gift to yourself and it's a gift
of giving a story to someone.” - Amy Tan

Seshat, under various
spellings, was the Ancient Egyptian goddess of wisdom, knowledge, and writing.
She was seen as a scribe and record keeper, and her name means ‘she who
scrivens’ (i.e. she who is the scribe), and is credited with inventing writing.
She also became identified as the goddess of accounting, architecture,
astronomy, astrology, building, mathematics, and surveying. These are all
professions that relied upon expertise in her skills. She is identified as Safekh-Aubi
in some late texts. Mistress of the House of Books is another title for Seshat,
being the deity whose priests oversaw the library in which scrolls of the most
important knowledge were assembled and spells were preserved.

One prince of
the fourth dynasty, Wep-em-nefret, is noted as the Overseer of the Royal
Scribes, Priest of Seshat on a slab stela. Heliopolis was the location of her
principal sanctuary. She is described as the goddess of history. In art, she
was depicted as a woman with a seven-pointed emblem above her head. It is
unclear what this emblem represents. Pharaoh Tuthmosis III (1479-1425 BCE)
called her Sefket-Abwy (‘She of seven points’). Spell 10 of the Coffin Texts
states “Seshat opens the door of heaven for you”.

Usually, she is
shown holding a palm stem, bearing notches to denote the recording of the
passage of time, especially for keeping track of the allotment of time for the
life of the pharaoh. She was also depicted holding other tools and, often,
holding the knotted cords that were stretched to survey land and structures.
She is frequently shown dressed in a cheetah or leopard hide, a symbol of
funerary priests. If not shown with the hide over a dress, the pattern of the
dress is that of the spotted feline. The pattern on the natural hide was
thought to represent the stars, being a symbol of eternity, and to be
associated with the night sky.

As the divine
measurer and scribe, Seshat was believed to appear to assist the pharaoh in
both of these practices. It was she who recorded, by notching her palm, the
time allotted to the pharaoh for his stay on earth. Seshat assisted the pharaoh
in the ‘stretching the cord’ ritual. This ritual is related to laying out the
foundations of temples and other important structures in order to determine and
assure the sacred alignments and the precision of the dimensions. Her skills
were necessary for surveying the land after the annual floods to reestablish
boundary lines. The priestess who officiated at these functions in her name
also oversaw the staff of others who performed similar duties and were trained
in mathematics and the related store of knowledge. Much of this knowledge was
considered quite sacred and not shared beyond the ranks of the highest
professionals such as architects and certain scribes.

She also was
responsible for recording the speeches the pharaoh made during the crowning
ceremony and approving the inventory of foreign captives and goods gained in
military campaigns. During the New Kingdom, she was involved in the Sed
festival held by the pharaohs who could celebrate thirty years of reign. Later,
when the cult of the moon deity, Thoth, became prominent and he became
identified as a god of wisdom, the role of Seshat changed in the Egyptian
pantheon when counterparts were created for most older deities. The lower ranks
of her priestesses were displaced by the priests of Thoth. First, she was
identified as his daughter, and later as his wife.

After the
pairing with Thoth the emblem of Seshat was shown surmounted by a crescent
moon, which, over time, degenerated into being shown as two horns arranged to
form a crescent shape, but pointing downward (in an atypical fashion for
Egyptian art). When the crescent moon symbol had degenerated into the horns,
she sometimes was known as Safekh-Aubi, meaning she who wears the two horns. In
a few images the horns resemble two cobras, as depicted in hieroglyphs, but
facing each other with heads touching.

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WELCOME

Welcome to Nicholas V's Blog on Blogger

I have been blogging daily on this platform for several years now. It is surprising that I have persisted as the world is changing and "microblogging" is now the norm. I blog to amuse myself, make comment on current affairs, externalise some of my creativity, keep notes on things that interest me, learn something new and to surprise myself with things that I discover about this wonderful, and sometimes crazy, world we live in.

I sometimes get the impression that I am on a soapbox delivering a monologue, so your comments are welcome.